In the music streaming era, access to data is king. Artists want to know how their music is being discovered, who’s listening, where, how many have streamed their release, and what else their fans are into, among other things. Today, Spotify is releasing an app for artists that aims to answer these questions, while also giving artists a way to update their profile and connect with listeners while on the go.

Essentially, this new “Spotify for Artists” app, as it’s called, is a mobile version of Spotify’s artist dashboard, which exited beta earlier this year. The key difference is the convenience of mobile access – something Spotify product manager, Miles Lennon, was a top demand.

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“The first thing we’re trying to achieve is meeting the artists’ needs to have mobility,” he says. “They don’t have desk jobs. While we have a desktop product, it’s not accessible to them.”

Like the web dashboard, the app lets artists update their profile on the service, including things like their bio, their artist’s pick and their playlists. These picks and playlists are one of the ways artists on Spotify engage fans – by telling them what favorite new song they’re listening to, for example, or by featuring their favorite tracks.

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The ability to upload new photos to the artist profile is not yet supported, but will be in a future release of the app, we’re told.

However, the key features in the Spotify for Artists app have to do with gaining native mobile access to streaming data, including real-time data on new releases.

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As soon as a new release drops, the app will update instantly as the track gets streamed. This will continue for the first week after a new single, EP or album is released, says Spotify.

This feature is exclusive to mobile and leverages Google’s Cloud infrastructure, explains Lennon....